'They Shoot Horses' Takes Unflinching Look At '30s

Movies - CLASSIC OF THE WEEK

December 31, 2000|By Crosby Day of The Sentinel Staff

Jane Fonda was already a glamorous veteran of 15 movies - thanks in large part to her sex kitten image with such films as French husband Roger Vadim's Barbarella - when she elected to switch career gears with the starkly unglamorous dramatics of director Sydney Pollack's downbeat They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969).

Horace McCoy's 1935 novel about that curious Depression-era phenomenon - the dance marathon - had gained a cult following over the years. And, in the late 1960s, its intense, fast-dancing characters - desperate to win their cruelly taxing contest at all costs - seemed an uncanny reflection of the equally desperate era in which it was filmed. The movie's setting, a seedy 1932 California dance palace, thus became a claustrophobic microcosm of the '30s life, at the same time, an oblique mirror image of the turbulent '60s.

Under Pollack's uncompromising direction, Fonda and the rest of the outstanding cast are relentless in their portrayals. Fonda is fiercely dedicated as Gloria, the tough, self-destructive unemployed Hollywood film extra who teams up with Robert to make some honest bucks on the dance floor. Michael Sarrazin excels as her dance partner who dreams of becoming a famous movie director.

Also compelling are Susannah York as Alice, an aspiring Jean Harlow type who hopes to be discovered while dancing in the spotlight; Red Buttons as Sailor, a savvy marathon veteran with a heart problem; and Bonnie Bedelia as Ruby, a pregnant farm wife who enters the contest with her husband, played interestingly by Bruce Dern.

But the dance floor spotlight must shine on Gig Young for effectively replacing his customarily light-comedy image with a marvelously cynical portrait of the ballroom's oily master of ceremonies, Rocky. The Rocky character was based on bandleader Ben Bernie of the 1930s. The "Yowsah! Yowsah!" exhortations by Young's Rocky are vintage Ben Bernie.

Young won a best supporting actor Oscar for his performance. The role marked the peak in his film career that nine years later ended in tragedy when he killed his fifth wife and shot himself.

Movie veteran Lionel Stander had also been considered for the role of Rocky.

Al Lewis, best-known for his Grandpa Munster role in the successful TV series The Munsters, is outstanding as Rocky's equally seedy and tux-outfitted partner, Turkey.

They Shoot Horses, Don't They? earned six other Oscar nominations, including best director (Pollack), best actress (Fonda), best supporting actress (York) and adapted screenplay (James Poe and Robert Thompson). However, it was Young who came away the only winner. Fonda's nomination was her first.

To make sure the cast members looked properly fatigued for the dance sequences, Pollack would have them run around the set several times before he began filming.

Most of the action in the film is supposed to take place at a 1930s dance-marathon hot spot, Ocean Park's famed Aragon Ballroom in Santa Monica, Calif. However, a replica of the ballroom was built on nearby Lick Pier where the filming was done.

Look for director Mervyn LeRoy in an unbilled performance as a member of the dance-marathon audience introduced by Rocky (Young).